Frances Cynthia Guiani-Sayadi, a staunch advocate and champion of Gender and Development was the “brain” behind the ALERT. Her conviction on gender equality and women empowerment was shored up when she was wounded in a car bomb incident in 2013 in which 56 other people were injured and seven people were killed, including two members of her security es**rt. “One thing that I saw during that inci
dent was that we really need women to help women. In Islamic custom, we do not allow men to touch us unless he is our husband or our father,” explains then City Administrator Cynthia Guaini-Sayadi. “So when I was brought to the hospital, while looking at the other victims, I thought, ‘I have to create a team for purposes of disasters like this or even other disasters.’
The ALERT was then formally created with the approval of the then City Mayor Japal J. It is composed of employees of various city departments. The members are professionals in their field and are composed of a regular employees of the City Government headed by a doctor in the person of . Dr. Edvir Jane Montañer, a medical officer of the Office of Health Services of Cotabato City. As volunteers, the women are not paid to be part of ALERT and the emergency response work is in addition to their current work load for the city government. For these women, being part of the team is a labour of love. “Being a public servant, it is very important that we know and we love our work, not for monetary purposes, but to serve the Cotabateños,” explains Dr. Montañer
This team of women were chosen based on their skills and capabilities. They have undergone series of trainings and capability buildings that are suited, well planned and financed by the City Government (with the help of our NGO partners: Engage-USAID, UN- World Food Programme, Yum Philippines and others) inorder to enhanced their skills, capacities and capabilities. Sigay Ka, Cotabato City!
